our journey raising two country loving girls, and them raising us.

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farm life

This weekend I attended my first CWA (California Women for Agriculture) Convention and State-Wide Meeting. This was definitely stepping out my comfort zone and I’m really glad I did. I joined our local chapter a little over a year ago after a few friends were in it and I was looking for a way to get involved and learn more about ag issues and embrace my country lifestyle. Sometimes I feel like such an impostor at the meetings: I didn’t grow up doing 4-H, working cows, or farming like so many of the people in the organization, I can’t talk ag policies, and don’t even get me started on my fear of the Adopt-a-Legislator program where were are supposed to go meet with urban legislators to voice our concerns/issues. But I’m doing it and I’m putting myself out there to learn more and get involved in this ag community that I am now a part of. It was a great weekend – I did learn a lot about the organization: it started in the 70’s in the Cochella Valley, now there are over 20 chapters and 2,000 members over the state. The mission of CWA is, “to promote and develop the interest of California women involved or interested in agriculture and to promote a strong agriculture industry in California. CWA’s efforts are guided by 5 principle objectives: to speak on behalf of agriculture in an intelligent, informative, direct and truthful manner; to keep CWA members informed on legislative activities pertaining to agriculture; to join forces when the need arises to deal with agricultural issues and challenges; to improve the public image of farmers and; to develop a rapport with consumers, educators, and governmental & business leaders in communities throughout the State.” I am excited for another year of learning with this chapter and meeting new people.
Funny story from the weekend: while we were there I heard a woman say her last name and it was the same as my Grandma’s maiden name; so after asking her about it I learned her husband was my Grandma’s first cousin! Small world! I was able to meet her husband that night at the dinner and we did some catching up. I met them once before at a family reunion probably 20+ years ago, so it had been awhile. Love when stuff like that happens and you are reminded how small the world really is.

I got back home yesterday afternoon to kiddos and a hubby that I had missed (good to go, great to come home) and we got ready to finally celebrate Christmas with my parents. I was sick on Christmas so our Christmas celebration had been postponed and we sure were ready! It was quite a bummer on Christmas when we had to cancel getting together. I was all ready to host dinner here with my parents, younger brother, and my Mom’s cousin but a little stomach bug made us keep our distance in fear of sharing it. Funny story from last night: as we are cooking the potatoes and brussel sprouts my Dad went to open the oven and the oven door was locked; turning the oven on/off didn’t help, holding down the lock button didn’t help and somehow the broiler had turned on and the oven seemed to be getting hotter and hotter. I might have freaked out a little about the food catching on fire and another Christmas dinner being ruined but thankful my Dad and husband kept cool and turned the breaker off on the oven. After googling “whirpool oven locked with F3 error code” I read an almost identical situation as to ours and learned that what most likely happened was that the heat sensor in the oven went out causing the oven to continue increasing in temperature and when it got too hot the oven locked itself for safety. After opening a few presents we flipped the breaker on again and the oven had cooled off enough to let us open it. Phew. The food was a little bit brown but not ruined! Hooray!! We were able to enjoy a delicious dinner, finish opening presents (cannot wait to cook something from The Pioneer Woman’s new cookbook!) and have a great story from our Christmas celebration from this year.

On to another week of PRAYING continuously for rain. I never understood the importance of a wet winter until having cows and now an orchard (which at least we can irrigate if needed). To look and see how dry, brown, and dusty it is for January is depressing. Right now, I should be able to look out our windows and see green most everywhere. I should see the hay that my father in law has planted growing so there is feed for their cattle for next year, I should see pastures with green grass but I look out and see brown dirt just waiting for rain. It is a scary time right now for farmers and ranchers every where. We are having to feed hay almost every other day for our cattle herd and that isn’t cheap; we are having to make tough decisions about what to do because we cannot afford to do this all season and we are not the only ones facing these decisions right now. Looking at the 10 day forecast and seeing a high of 74 two days this week is just crazy! While I love that kind of weather so we can get outside and play I don’t want 74 degree weather in January — I want cold, rainy, drizzly days with soup on the stove and the sound of pounding rain on the roof. So, pray for rain and pray some more.

I’ve missed this and I want to be better at posting here in 2014. I had a dear friend share her new blog link with me earlier this week and it made me want to get back on here. (Her mentioning she missed reading it also might have played some part in today’s post as well.)

So, I didn’t know what to post since I have’t posted in almost a year and, wow, how much has changed since then. We now have a 5 year old (some days going on about 13 1/2 and other days the sweetest little girl you’d ever meet) and 3 1/2 year old (still spunky, feisty and giving us a run for the money, but so much fun). But we are another year into being their parents and while some days I think we have it figured out there are other days that I wonder what the HELL I am doing and that I was CRAZY for leaving my job to stay home with these two little crazy people. For the most part I really do love it. Today, was a day I was totally and completely overwhelmed with love as I watched these two little ones run down our driveway and close our gate and run back together – all by themselves. Doesn’t sound like a big deal to most, but to me it was a pretty big deal. They.didn’t.need.me. They were beyond excited to do it by themselves and more importantly, together. They held hands for some of the walk down the driveway and chased each other for the rest and I just sat on our front porch and watched them. I couldn’t help but project farther ahead in life: isn’t this what we want them to be able to do? Take on the world. Be brave. Try new things. And leave the safety of home with Mom on the porch and come running back proud of their accomplishments. Today it was a gate; tomorrow it’ll be something else. Whoa.

Think that’s deep enough for today.

Anyways, I emailed them a little note about watching them shut the gate and what a sweet moment it was to watch (see my previous post about emailing the girls here)and then sent a note to my hubby thanking him for letting me be here to watch that moment and he wrote back two sentences that put tears in my eyes: “Warmed my heart. I know there is a reason why I am working.” Now, you need to understand everything about this — I have sent maybe two total notes to my husband like this over the last three years of being home. I’m embarrassed to admit that most days he gets home from work and I am still in workout clothes, probably haven’t showered, am tired, frustrated, and my patience is shot. It doesn’t mean I’m not grateful and thankful that I get to be home with my babies but it’s definitely not always at the top of my priority list to thank him. Today, it just needed to be said and I am really glad I did.

Stick around — I hope there will be more posts about our adventures with our orchard, our cows, and of course our kiddos.